


Long Slow Distance

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24472387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: People often told him that it wouldn't work, and questioned why he would want to date somebody more than six thousand miles away. What's the appeal? Why don't you just find someone closer, someone you can actually see in person? Why do you put yourself through that when you don't have to?Jaehyun always answered those questions with the same thing."Because he's worth it," he would tell them. "Because I would rather be with him this way than to not be with him at all."And after six long years, he's finally about to prove that right because in less than twenty minutes, his long distance boyfriend, Johnny Suh, will finally be in Korea, and more importantly, in Jaehyun's arms where he belongs.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 10
Kudos: 156





	Long Slow Distance

* * *

People often told him that it wouldn't work, and questioned why he would want to date somebody more than six thousand miles away. What's the appeal? Why don't you just find someone closer, someone you can actually see in person? Why do you put yourself through that when you don't have to?

Jaehyun always answered those questions with the same thing.

"Because he's worth it," he would tell them. "Because I would rather be with him this way than to not be with him at all."

And after six long years, he's finally about to prove that right because in less than twenty minutes, his long distance boyfriend, Johnny Suh, will finally be in Korea, and more importantly, in Jaehyun's arms where he belongs.

They met when Jaehyun was seventeen and Johnny was nineteen, through instagram, of course. Johnny was an aspiring photographer and Jaehyun came across his work through a friend, who just so happened to send Jaehyun one of his most iconic photographs - a stormy night in Chicago, overlooking the ocean from the end of the Navy Pier. Jaehyun always hated the ocean, hated the way he couldn't see where his feet were. The way seaweed would wrap itself around his ankles like a soft, slimy monster, trying to coax him into wandering _just a little bit_ further. The way the waves were so unpredictable, and could whisk you away without even so much as a second thought.

But that photograph.

Oh god, that photograph.

It made Jaehyun question whether his fear of the ocean was justified. He hated the ocean, but he hated storms more, which made his love for the photo all the more intriguing. It should have been something that gave him anxiety, something that he looked at once and forgot about the second his eyes looked away, but there was just something about it that had him captivated. He looked at the photo often, and even made it his lock screen at one point. It was just so beautiful, and the nagging feeling he felt whenever he looked at it got stronger and stronger with time, to the point where he just _had_ to tell Johnny. He had to tell him how in love he was with his photography, and so he did.

He never would have imagined that that one small interaction would have led to where they are now, six years later, with Jaehyun practically jumping up and down when he sees Johnny's flight number show up on the airport's landing board. They were finally in descent, scheduled to be at the gate in seven minutes exactly.

"You seem excited."

Jaehyun looks up and finds himself face to face with an older woman who looked to be in her mid to late sixties, a friendly smile on her face as she watches Jaehyun quickly halt his happy dance. "Ecstatic, really. My boyfriend is on that flight." He points to the gate where Johnny's flight should be exiting from within the next few minutes, and returns his gaze to the woman with an equally as friendly smile. "We've never met in person before and I'm trying to fight the anxiety with excitement."

"Oh, I know that feeling all too well." The woman pats Jaehyun on the back and points to the gate beside Johnny's with her free hand. "My husband is on that flight. He travels for a living. I used to go with him, but now that we have grandchildren, I stay behind to help our daughter. The excitement is always accompanied by anxiety, but trust me when I say it'll pass."

"I hope so. We've been together for a little over six years now, but this is his first time coming to Korea. He's from the states." Jaehyun's eyes flicker back and forth from person to person as people start exiting the plane, and he feels like his heart is about to explode as he searches for the familiar face he's looking for. "God, I can't wait to give him a hug."

"As you should," the woman agrees. "If he's willing to wait that long _and_ travel all this way for you, hug him and never let him go."

Jaehyun's response is lost on his tongue when he notices a tall figure with auburn hair turn the corner into the terminal, and all but loses his mind when the man makes eye contact and smiles. Jaehyun looks at the woman with a big, toothy grin before _sprinting_ over to the swarm of people, impatiently bouncing on his toes as he waits for Johnny to finally surface from the crowd.

Johnny's bags are on the ground in an instant, his arms immediately out in front of him as Jaehyun crashes into him chest first. He scoops him up into a hug, something Jaehyun is surprised to see him do so easily, and spins him around a few times before setting him back down onto the ground.

"You're real. You're really real," Jaehyun mumbles into Johnny's shoulder, which is a lot broader than he expected it to be. "You actually came. I can't even believe this is happening."

"I'm here, I'm here. I told you I would be, didn't I?" Johnny rests his chin on the top of Jaehyun's head and inhales his scent deep into his lungs, committing it to memory before pulling away slightly to get a better look at him. "God, you're so handsome. Even more so in person. You keep saying I'm real, but are you sure _you_ are?"

Jaehyun squeezes his eyes shut as Johnny leans in to kiss him, his lips every bit as soft as he'd imagined. "I'm crying. I told myself I wouldn't but I can't help it. You're just so...real. You actually exist and you're standing right in front of me. How is this happening?"

"It's happening because I just sat on an almost fourteen hour flight just to be here," Johnny laughs. He brushes the hair away from Jaehyun's forehead and kisses him again, this time on the top of the head. "Stop crying. I'm not going anywhere, okay? Everything is alright."

Jaehyun wipes his nose with his sleeve and takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. "I know. I know, I know, I know. Everything is fine. I'm just overwhelmed is all. I'm fine. This is fine. Let's go to baggage claim for the rest of your stuff and get out of here."

Jaehyun opts to take the scenic route home, even though his apartment is nowhere near the ocean. His red jeep wrangler is dirtied and worn, and he almost felt bad that Johnny's expensive looking luggage had nowhere to sit but on the stained backseats of his car. Nevertheless, driving with the windows down along the ocean with Johnny's favorite band bumping through the speakers felt like heaven on earth, and Jaehyun was still having a hard time trying to come to terms with the fact that it was actually happening.

"My heart feels like it's gonna fly out of my chest." Johnny tightens his grip on Jaehyun's hand, which is clutching at the gear shift between the seats. "You know how many times I've imagined this exact scenario? Driving along the coast with you here, holding my hand just like this?"

"Well, now you don't have to imagine anymore. Where are we going?"

"Home. I just wanted to take the long way is all."

"Home," Johnny repeats with a smile. "I like the sound of that."

Johnny falls asleep within the first twenty minutes of getting to Jaehyun's apartment. Fourteen hours on a plane is no joke, and even the excitement of finally being with Jaehyun isn't enough to rid himself of the godawful jet lag.

"What time is it?" He subconsciously pulls Jaehyun into his chest, the feeling of waking up next to another person being a little weird, but also comforting. "How long was I asleep?"

"Only a few hours, and I fell asleep too, so don't worry. It's a little before six."

"AM?!"

"No, PM."

"Oh, thank god. I was afraid I'd slept away our first night together."

"I wouldn't have blamed you. You did spend more than an entire day traveling across the world." Jaehyun withdraws from Johnny a little, pulling back just enough to see his face. "You snore. Did you know that?"

"I also talk sometimes, so there's that, too." Johnny runs a hand through Jaehyun's hair before kissing him on the forehead, the nose, and then finally, his lips. "This still doesn't feel real. I feel like I'm gonna wake up at any minute, sad and disappointed because I'm actually still in Chicago having some sort of weird fever dream."

Jaehyun realizes only now just how much he likes forehead kisses, and wishes Johnny would do it more often. "Yeah, I know the feeling." He traces the lines of his chest, which are clearly visible through his shirt, stopping after a moment when he feels Johnny shudder. "Sorry."

"No, it's--don't be. Please." Johnny takes Jaehyun's hand in his and places it over his heart, his own hand pressing down over the top of Jaehyun's knuckles as if to add emphasis onto the fact that his heart is beating wildly. "Do whatever you want."

Even with almost six years of sexting and sending nudes to each other, none of that could have prepared Jaehyun for the day he finally got to see Johnny's body in person. He continues tracing over his shirt, sliding his fingers over the small crevices of each individual muscle, and stops just before reaching the V of his hips. He notices Johnny's hair practically standing on end as goosebumps begin to appear all over his arms, and takes a short, deep breath before lifting his shirt just the slightest bit and stopping before it goes too far up his stomach.

"I'm nervous," he admits in a small voice. Johnny is the first and only person he's ever been with, and his lack of 'experience' is a bit of a sore spot when it comes to insecurities. "I've never been in this type of situation before and I don't wanna mess anything up."

"Don't think like that, Jae," Johnny soothes, his voice coming out in a calming whisper as he strokes Jaehyun's face with his thumb. "We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with. I'm not here to pressure you."

Jaehyun nods and closes his eyes for a brief moment, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth a few times in an attempt to get his head back on straight. "Will you kiss me again?"

Johnny silently obliges, leaning in and closing the gap between them once more as his lips meet Jaehyun's, soft at first, but getting more greedy as the seconds tick by. Six years is a long time to want someone, and finally being able to show love to Jaehyun in something more than just through a phone screen has his rational thinking on the verge of disappearing completely. He grabs a fistful of Jaehyun's hair, careful not to be too rough with him, and pulls his head back ever so slightly so that his neck is fully exposed. "You're so fucking pretty, Jaehyun."

Jaehyun doesn't have time to respond to Johnny's compliment before his lips are on his neck, already sucking a tender bruise into his skin without warning. It feels good, better than he'd always imagined, and trying to keep quiet is proving to be more of a challenge than he'd originally thought. " _Fuck_." He's so wound up that he doesn't even know what to say or how to respond, and paws at Johnny with desperate hands as a means of asking for more.

"I need you to use your words with me." Johnny releases the hold he has on Jaehyun's hair and covers his face with light kisses before eventually landing one last one on his lips. "I'm not gonna know what you want unless you tell me."

"Y-yeah." Jaehyun swallows hard, his head still reeling from everything going on all at once, and tugs on Johnny's shirt with both of his hands. "I wanna see all of you."

Johnny sits back and adjusts his position on the bed so that he can remove his shirt without elbowing Jaehyun in the neck, and tosses it aside with a small smile. "You want some help with yours?"

"Please." Johnny pulls Jaehyun up into a sitting position and takes his time as he slowly pulls his shirt over his head, fingers running lightly up his torso as he does so. A chill runs up Jaehyun's spine that causes him to shake violently, and Johnny grabs onto his waist with one hand while the other discards his shirt completely. "I've seen your chest a million times before but somehow seeing it in person just feels...surreal." Jaehyun looks Johnny up and down, eyes lingering on the V of his hips for much longer than they needed to. Johnny's body is something he's always loved and having him right here in front of him was starting to feel stifling in a way. "Still can't even believe you're here."

"In your bed half naked, no less," Johnny laughs. He lets his eyes wander over Jaehyun's body for a few seconds, watching his muscles tense as he breathes in and out. "You really are beautiful, Jae. I mean that."

"I know." To be honest, he'd never believed anything more. The look of absolute love and adoration Johnny had in his eyes every time he even so much as _glanced_ at Jaehyun was something that never ceased to make his heart jump. Johnny was dumb in love with him, and Jaehyun suddenly wants Johnny to be sure of the fact that he feels the same. "I love you. Like, a lot. A lot a lot. I don't know. I just want you to know that."

"I _do_ know that. I wouldn't have come all the way here if I didn't." Johnny invites Jaehyun into his lap with open arms and squeezes him as hard as he can before pulling away and looking into his eyes. He brushes a strand of hair away from his forehead and kisses him, cupping his face in his hands as he does it. "Would be lying if I didn't say that I love you, too. What do you wanna do now?"

"Plenty of things, considering I'm half naked in your lap," Jaehyun shrugs, going a little red in the face. "But not right now. I need to calm down first so I can get my head on straight again."

Johnny nods, thankful for the opportunity to clear his own head as well. The sexual tension was getting him light headed, and he wanted to be fully conscious and in the right state of mind when it came to doing more. "Yeah. My head feels like I just ingested a bunch of helium. We could go get dinner if you want?"

"Yeah," Jaehyun smiles. "You know that place I've been telling you about? The one with the soft shell crab?"

"The one you've been adamant about us going to on our first real date? Yeah, I think I know the one. You've only been talking about it for six years."

"Shut up. I've been going there since I was a kid and it's really important to me." Jaehyun punches Johnny in the shoulder, immediately pulling his hand back when a sharp pain shoots from his knuckles all the way up his arm. "Your arms are like bricks, what the hell?"

"Can't do anything about that," Johnny laughs. He brings his arm up and flexes, the veins in his biceps and triceps popping out with the sudden exertion making Jaehyun's eyes go wide. "It's just how I'm built."

"Yeah, like a damn demigod or something."

"Just call me Maui."

"I was thinking more along the lines of Thor, but same thing." Jaehyun leans in and kisses Johnny on lightly on the lips, a single peck before burying his face in his neck. "I'm so happy you're here, Johnny."

Johnny wraps his arms around Jaehyun and rests his chin on his head with a happy sigh. "I told you I'd come for you. It took a while to actually get the funds to do it, but I'm here, like I always promised I would be."

People often told them that it wouldn't work, and questioned why they would want to date somebody more than six thousand miles away. What's the appeal? Why don't you just find someone closer, someone you can actually see in person? Why do you put yourself through that when you don't have to?

After six long years of being apart, Jaehyun and Johnny have finally gotten to the point where they can prove that it has absolutely been worth it.


End file.
